Isaiah 45:1

CHAPTER XLV

Prophecy concerning Cyrus, the first king of the Persians.

Every obstruction shall be removed out of his way, and the

treasures taken from his enemies shall be immense, 1-3,

To whom, and on what account, Cyrus was indebted for his

wonderful success, 4-6.

The prophet refutes the absurd opinion of the Persians, that

there were two supreme beings, an evil and a good one,

represented by light and darkness, here declared to be only the

operation of the ONE true God, 7;

and makes a transition to the still greater work of God

displayed in the dispensation of the Gospel, 8.

Great impiety of those who call in question the mysterious

providence of God towards his children, 9-12.

The remaining part of this chapter, interspersed with

strictures on the absurdity of idolatry and some allusions to

the dark lying oracles of the heathens, may partly refer to the

deliverance begun by Cyrus, but chiefly to the salvation by the

Messiah, which, it is declared, shall be of universal extent

and everlasting duration, 13-25.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLV

Verse Isaiah 45:1. Loose the loins of kings - "ungird the loins of kings"] Isaiah 5:27. Xenophon gives the following list of the nations conquered by Cyrus: the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both the Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phoenicians, Babylonians. He moreover reigned over the Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, the Sacae Paphlagones, and Mariandyni. - Cyrop., lib. i. p. 4, Edit. Hutchinson, Quarto. All these kingdoms he acknowledges, in his decree for the restoration of the Jews, to have been given to him by JEHOVAH, the God of heaven. Ezra 1:2.

To open before him the two leaved gates, c. - "That I may open before him the valves and the gates shall not be shut"] The gates of Babylon within the city leading from the streets to the river, were providentially left open, when Cyrus's forces entered the city in the night through the channel of the river, in the general disorder occasioned by the great feast which was then celebrated; otherwise, says Herodotus, i. 191, the Persians would have been shut up in the bed of the river, and taken as in a net, and all destroyed. And the gates of the palace were opened imprudently by the king's orders, to inquire what was the cause of the tumult without; when the two parties under Gobrias and Gadatas rushed in, got possession of the palace, and slew the king. - XENOPH., Cyrop. vii. p. 528.